A Braves blog of statistics, numbers, and CPA-driven analysis about Atlanta and the rest of the NL East.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Training Games 13-15: Tigers, Astros, Blue Jays

We had 3 games in 2 days over Thursday and Friday. The reason was that in Spring Training, on the weekends, you often see teams do what's called a split squad set of games. Essentially, that just means the team gets split in half, and they play different games that day against different opponents. They usually try to divide them up pretty evenly so it's not just the regulars and the scrubs.

So what did we learn against the Tigers? Well, first we learned that Teheran can go 4 innings with little damage. He also posted 5 Ks against one walk in that outing against the Tigers, so the command is there. We learned that Venters still isn't quite there yet, since he gave up 2 hits in one inning, but luckily no runs. We learned that Dan Uggla can occasionally get a hit in between strikeouts. We learned that Juan Francisco may have a lot of home run pop in his bat this season.

Against Toronto? We learned that even Medlen can still have bad days giving up 3 runs in 4 innings on 5 hits and a wall-clearer. We learned that there will be days that the Braves lineup can go absolutely ice cold and strike out 10 times, as we'd feared.

Against Houston? We learned that there will be days that the Braves lineup can go absolutely red hot and score double digit runs. It's going to be a lot of feast and famine, and we as fans better be prepared for that. If anything these two games on the same day were a tale of two cities. The haves and the have nots. The strikeouts and the out-of-the-ballparks shots. We learned that Evan Gattis is going to beat the office over the head with how good he can be. Gattis went 3/4 with a 3 runs bomb in the second inning and 4 RBIs total. Holy cow. Gattis is slugging .800 in spring training. Again, if he doesn't make this roster as a PH guy, something is very wrong about how the Braves are evaluating their talent.

We're keeping the fielding errors down now, which is one of the things I look for in training. I don't like the fact that Dan has two, or that Pastornicky has two, but I really don't think Pastornicky will make the team. Everyone else seems to be making good throws and keeping the ball in front of them. Also, no errors in the outfield yet, which is a great sign.

Today we play the Yankees again. Looks like the weather will be 70 degrees and perfect. Enjoy the game if you get the chance to see it. I'll be figuring out how to adjust payroll taxes in the meantime.

About Me

I come home from a long day of cranking the adding machine, and during baseball season I know that almost every night at 7PM, the Braves will be there. They are like a comforting sports night lite. I fully admit to doing the Chop in my own living room, by myself, in order to get a rally going. I also admit to getting entirely too involved in the games by yelling at the TV. My neighbors probably think I'm insane. They may be correct.
I'm also a devout Christian, and a friend of Jesus. I enjoy discussing the Bible and teaching a class at my local church.